And Ace is, once again, being himself
by BlackGeminiWolfDemon
Summary: Ace is back, he has no idea why, but he does know that he wants to find a certain man *coughSmokercough* and drive him insane. But first, he needs to figure out a way to let his brother know he's alive (again) without his brother then telling the rest of the world. Oh, and he finds out how much he hates cleaning toilets while he's at it. SmoAce Smoker/Ace fanfic
1. And Ace is Back (but no-one knows)

**Hiya, this is my first One Piece fanfic and reviews are welcome. Lso, thank you for taking the time to read this **

Soft hands wrapped around the mast of a one man vessel as angry eyes looked into the surrounding ocean, a volley of curses escaping the man in question as he realised exactly how much trouble he was in.

His current predicament was one where he had no way of going anywhere. At all. Thinking over his situation, Ace came to the conclusion that someone must have tampered with the engine on his boat before he left the island he had previously been at, as that was the only way to explain the engine on his boat exploding once the island in question was out of sight. The one man vessel that he was talking about was the small boat that ran using the flames he controlled and said vessel had never broken down before. The mast was in place on this one man boat for when he was too lazy to make the boat move using his fire. Right now, though, the mast was proving to be completely useless as there was no wind at all. Not even a slight breeze.

This meant that Fire Fist Ace was completely stranded in the middle of the ocean with no way of getting himself to land. And what was worse was that without even the slightest breeze he was forced to withstand the overpowering heat coming from the sun that was still high in the sky.

At least he had booze from his trip onto the island. That was one of the few good things he could think of, the only other one being that he could also work on his tan in this heat.

Yeah, he didn't have much to be happy about.

Stripping of his shirt and placing his hat over his eyes as he lazed about on the small vessel, the tan, raven haired man quickly fell asleep, quiet snores escaping him every now and then.

Several hours later, when night had fallen, the ravenette awoke to the sounds of splashing and shouted orders. Now, normally one would assume this to be a good thing, however, for the dark haired man currently stranded and alone it was not.

You see, Ace was supposed to be dead and no-one, not even his brother Luffy or his old pirate captain, knew he was back. For all intents and purposes he had died, and when his death had occurred the Mera Mera no Mi fruit that had given him his powers had also been the cause of his body burning into ash. The reason he had been brought back was still a mystery to him, but how he had come back was not and right now no-one was supposed to know he was alive and still had the powers of the Mera Mera no Mi.

And the boat currently heading in his direction was one of the marines boats. This presented two possibilities to the quick-witted pirate. The first was that they would notice him and believe him to be a ghost (something that quite amused him), and the second was that they wouldn't notice him and he would be able to sneak on board and keep hidden until the marines went into port. The second possibility was the one he was hoping for, especially as it would mean that he would be able to check up on the current situation his brother and his favourite marine officer were in, as the last time he had seen them had been when he had died.

As the marine ship drew near it became obvious what was causing the splashing. The marine officers on board were using the many oars to move the ship and due to the level of concentration they were using they hadn't noticed him. Smirking up at the officers Ace waited until it was nearer to move himself to the back of the ship where he promptly pulled both himself and his small vessel on board. Looking around in case he was noticed Ace was pleased to note that he had gotten on board without being noticed. Not bothering to think about the lack of guards, the dark haired male quickly went below deck, finding a storage room that he could hide in and setting himself up in the darkest corner. Smirking at what he considered a job well done, Ace decided it was about time he got something to eat since he was starving. Looking through the storage for a spare marine uniform, Ace sighed and cursed under his breath as he considered his rotten luck.

If there was one thing that he never wanted to do it was dress up as a marine, but right then it was the only way he could get to food without the possibility of someone recognising him.

After an hour of searching the dark haired male found himself with what he could consider a decent disguise. After hiding his own clothes by his one man ship, Ace changed into the marine uniform, cursing the existence of such tight fitting shirts. Or at least, they were tight fitting to a man who usually wore shirts almost two sizes too big or no shirt at all. Pulling his hair back and tying it up in a ponytail as slicked to his head as possible, the only thing he had to do to completed his disguise was put on the hat and glasses he had found as well. Stepping out of the shadows the now disguised Ace moved to the door of the storage room, slipping out of the room when he was sure no-one was nearby. The glasses he had on were quite weak which was lucky for him as otherwise he wouldn't have been able to see properly. Deciding to test out his disguise, Ace walked through the halls mapping out the layout of the ship.

After half an hour of searching for the kitchen and passing the odd marine officer Ace found himself getting close to asking for directions which would seem pretty suspicious to anyone with a half decent brain in their heads.

Lucky for the disguised male the next door he opened did indeed open to the kitchen and mess hall. And a mess hall it was, he quickly realised, as the room was filled with marines who were eating and, well, making a mess.

Slipping quietly through to where the food was Ace tried not to draw attention to himself. Unfortunately, this plan failed due to the amount of food he piled onto his plate. It wasn't unusual for the marines to take big plates of food, unfortunately for Ace, though, he was also considered a 'new face' as he hadn't been on the ship before. Heading to an empty seat, the dark haired male soon found himself being dragged into a conversation by other officers as they bombarded him with questions, and it all started with one of the officers noticing him and pointing out that he was one of the new faces picked up at the last port (or so they assumed).

"So what's your name?"  
"Where are you from?"  
"What rank are you?"  
"Hey, you always eat that much?"

The whole time he was being bombarded with questions Ace had been stuffing his face. The sudden quiet drew his attention and he realized they were waiting for him to answer their questions. Swallowing his mouthful of food Ace grinned up at the officers. He opened his mouth food answer the questions when the door to the mess hall was opened and an angry commodore walked in. Looking over at the new person Ace couldn't help the grin threatening to cross his face. He had been planning on getting off of his ship as soon as possible but now he thought he might hang around a bit longer. After all, he had just found one of the two people he had been searching for.

Commodore Smoker had just walked into the mess hall as he had discovered that the me who were supposed to be on duty had been absent from their posts and this had gotten on his nerves as someone could have attacked them and they wouldn't have known until it was too late. Shouting at his men to move their asses and get back to their positions, Smoker cursed at the fact that he also had new recruits that he had to train. It was, in his opinion, stupid to have new recruits trained on the job as they were more likely to get themselves killed that way. Scowling as the men ran around rushing to get to their positions and avoid the commodores wrath, Smoker soon found his attention being grabbed by what he assumed to be a new recruit as it was a new face. Although he felt like he had seen that face somewhere before. Shaking his head Smoker walked over to the new recruit, eyeing the man who was currently watching the rushing and stumbling marines with an air of amusement.

Ace laughed at the scared marines, a smirk playing across his lips. He avoided thinking about his cover being blown, but let's face it, even if his cover was blown Smoker would never believe that it was really him considering the white haired male had seen him die. Looking up at Smoker with a cheeky grin, the raven haired male couldn't help but tease the commodore a little, "They seem a bit scared, don'tcha think?" Laughing lightheartedly, he returned to his meal feigning ignorance as to who the white haired male actually was. "You'd think there was a pirate on board from the way they ran like that!"

Smoker looked at the new recruit with no idea how close to the truth the statement actually was. Unable to believe that this recruit had no idea who he was Smoker came to the decision that he must simply be stupid. Or insane. Possibly both judging from the manic grin spreading across the freckled face.

"Get to your station, brat."

Ace grinned up at him and, after swallowing his mouthful of food, licked his lips, "And what station would that be, sir~?" The innocent question came out in a teasing tone and Ace's eyes flickered with a hint of amusement.

Smoker growled and placed two cigars in his mouth, lighting them up and deeply inhaling the smoke. Blowing the air out after the calming effect of the nicotine kicked in, Smoker allowed his eyes to roam over the man before him. Unlike most of his new recruits, this one had a body that had obviously undergone training far more strenuous then what most recruits did. The uniform he was wearing that was actually one size small showed off the muscles that were currently hidden by layers of clothing. The muscles were not of the bulging sort and, unlike Smoker's own muscles, this recruits muscles were of the lithe sort. Upon further study of the man in front of him, Smoker noticed the many scars visible on the man's arms that seemed to be from a variety of weapons.

As Smoker studied him, Ace couldn't help but note the almost glowing intensity of the Commodore's eyes. Slowly, a devilish smirk closed his lips as Ace regarded the man before him.

"You have pretty eyes."

Smoker snapped said eyes to the face of the recruit before him, a scowl crossing his lips. Ace was sat there smiling innocently at Smoker, laughter evident in the exotic depths of his own dark eyes.

"What did you say, brat?"

"I said, 'like what you see'?" Holding back his laughter was getting harder and harder, mostly due to how he found teasing the commodore to be so fun.

Smoker scowled and caught hold of the brats shirt, yanking him up and dragging him from the room and barely restraining the urge to smack the recruit upside the head. The longer he spoke to the annoying recruit the more he felt like he had met the kid before.

"Just for that comment you can have the fun task of cleaning all the latrines on board today." A smirk crossed his face as he glanced down at the man stumbling after him, "Oh, and a few of the others on board were sick earlier."

Ace felt the smile drop from his lips as he was told what his punishment was, and a pout was quick to form on his lips as he started to mumble under his breath about being told of.

Finding himself being shoved into a bathroom with cleaning supplies, Ace turned to complain just as the door slammed shut behind him.


	2. Showers are fun, but so is mischief

**Well, here's the second chapter up less then a week after the first as a thank you to Honyaku for the lovely Review! **

**Reviews and F/F are appreciated and are good motivation, and I hope you all enjoy reading this fanfic as much as I'm enjoying writing it! **

**Suggestions on how I could improve are also greatly appreciated! Enjoy 3**

Several hours later, Ace finally finished cleaning all of the latrines on board. Whilst cleaning the latrines he had had a narcoleptic attack, making him pass out in the middle of the job. This meant he was now tired and hungry and in need of a shower.

Putting the cleaning supplies away in a nearby storage room, Ace decided to find the showers, figuring that it would be the smartest thing to do considering that they should be empty at this time of the night. Whilst looking for the showers he was lucky enough to find a spare change of clothes which he grabbed without hesitation.

After finally finding the showers, the tired and hungry male was quick to make sure there were no other marines around. Then again, what marine would have a shower at 1am.

Sighing tiredly, the narcoleptic man was quick to strip and throw the soiled clothes in a corner before letting his hair down. He found it annoying to keep his hair tied up, much preferring to have the wild, raven coloured looks loose. The glasses were also annoying as they liked to slip off of his nose, meaning he had to keep pushing them back up.

Sighing happily, Ace threw the towel he had found on the floor not far from the showers before turning them on, feeling impatient. He wanted nothing more than to be under the hot spray of the showers, the water and warmth soothing his tense muscles. Finally stepping under the hot spray, steam rising up around him, Ace couldn't help but let his guard drop. The warmth and relaxation caused by the hot shower had him tipping his head back, moaning in appreciation. He pushed back the black locks that fell in his eyes, water dripping from his body as his mind slowly went blank, the raven haired male slowly relaxing.

It is for these reasons that he didn't hear the door to the showers open and then close as Smoker stepped inside.

Smoker, himself, had just finished filling out the paperwork before deciding to have a hot shower before bed. Unfortunately, the shower connected to his room had broken again, meaning he had to use the ones for his men. He wasn't pleased that, once again, he would have to have the shower connected to his room fixed.

Expecting the showers to be empty at this time of night, Smoker was surprised to find the showers on when he entered. Stripping of his clothing and placing them to one side, the Commodore slowly padded through the steam filled room until he reached the showers. Glancing at the outline of the man in the steam, he thought for a brief instant that it was Ace. He quickly pushed this thought aside, however, as that was not possible; the raven haired male his mind had flitted to was dead. Stepping under the hot spray of the shower, Smoker started to relax, wondering why he had been thinking of Ace so much for the last couple of weeks.

Ace, himself, had noticed Smoker only when the man had stepped under the spray of the shower next to him. Cursing his luck, Ace prayed that the steam was thick enough to hide the obvious tattoo on his back. Being brought back to life had not altered his physical appearance in the least, and he still had the tattoos from before he was killed. If anything, he had simply gained more scars due to the fight he had been involved in before his death.

Keeping an eye on Smoker, he waited patiently for the man's guard to drop, making sure to keep his back facing away from him. The only problem with that plan was that it meant exposing his stomach. He had a horrifying scar on his stomach from when he had been killed, and, glancing at it, he was pretty sure it would be a dead giveaway as to who he actually was. The scar itself was healed and didn't hurt in the slightest, but it was obvious that he had been punched through the stomach as he had the scar on both his stomach and his back. However, the one on his back wasn't as visible due to the tattoo.

His chance to escape Smoker presented itself in the form of a man stumbling into the showers naked and drunk. Several more marines followed in the same state, causing a ruckus, and they caused a long enough distraction for Ace to quickly pull on his 'uniform' and tie his hair back up. His attention was once again pulled to the commotion when he felt hands on his waist pulling him into the group of stupid, drunk marines. Cursing his luck, the raven haired male started to struggle, trying not to harm any of the drunk men too much as that would probably be a bit suspicious. After all, he was supposed to be a _new_ recruit, not an experienced fighter.

The whole time this was happening Smoker had been glaring at the men who had stumbled in, disturbing his relaxation. Shouting and trying to get some semblance of control had proven to be useless as well, as they simply laughed. At first he didn't know why they were laughing until one of them shouted out a loud 'Naked'. That was the first word he had understood from the drunk marines.

Flushing slightly from a combination of embarrassment and anger, Smoker quickly located his towel and wrapped it around his waist, two lit cigars already between his lips, the smoke swirling around above his head.

Upon looking back up from grabbing his towel, Smoker found the new recruit trying to get free from the hands of the drunk marines. They started to try and remove the struggling raven haired man's clothing as said man attempted to regain freedom, knocking out a couple recruits in the process. Smoker was quick to realise that the new recruit was the one who had been in the shower as well, as the man still had wet hair, a few beads of water running down his neck to his collar bone.

Reaching over and pulling the tanned man from within the group, Smoker growled and finally got their attention.

"Either sober up or you will all have cleaning duty for the next month."

Smoker had placed Ace just behind him, having stepped forwards to address the men before him. He realised that most of them were the new recruits and felt his hands twitch in anger as they continued to be loud and annoying. His smoke extended outwards, knocking the men out quite successfully before he turned to the only new recruit who hadn't been a part of the drunken hoard. Examining the man who was flushed and panting softly from the struggle, Smoker was curious as to why the man had been showering so late, and eh voiced his question.

"I wanted to shower with you!" Was the instant reply, and Smoker couldn't help but growl in annoyance. Shaking his head, the silverette demanded a real answer from the raven.

"Well, I was cleaning the latrines like you told me to. Do you have any idea how many there are on this ship!" a quiet mumble of, 'and my narcolepsy didn't help' also escaped the dark haired male.

Looking the young man before him over with slight approval, Smoker inhaled the nicotine from his cigars deeply, enjoying the relaxation that it caused. Both him and the recruit before him were ignoring the drunken babble as they spoke. "Well, brat, looks like you're the only smart recruit no board. Either that or you're lucky. Tell me, what's your name?"

Ace paused as he was asked his name and his mind started to work a mile a minute as he grinned up at the silver haired male, hiding his internal panic. He blurted out the first thing he thought of which just so happened to be, "Spades! My name is Jack Spades!" This name had come into his mind as he had been thinking of his name, which led to him thinking of the ace of spades and then the jack of spades. He prayed that Smoker wouldn't call him out on how ridiculous the name was, but he relaxed a moment later when the older male simply nodded.

"Well, Spades, from tomorrow you'll be training with me. You have clearly had some type of combat training and you seem to be more adept at it than them," Smoker glared pointedly at the marines now passed out on the floor, "so tomorrow report on deck at 7am sharp for training."

Nodding at the raven, Smoker turned and, after grabbing his clothing, stalked out of the showers.

Ace, for his part, was cursing internally and, on the way out of the showers, he kicked one of the recruits in the side, not exactly happy with his current situation. He quickly made his way back to the storage room where he had hidden his actual clothing, his hat and his skiff and flomped down in the space that he had left for himself. Glancing at the broken skiff, eh figured he should try and gets some work done on it before he slept, so for the next hour he pulled the skiff's engine apart, taking into account the damage and sighing as he realized that the problem would take at least a week to fix. Looking around the storage room, he quickly gathered most of what he needed and hid it by his skiff before curling up to sleep. At least he would be able to tease Smoker for the next week, that is, as long as he wasn't found out by then.

After getting only four hours sleep due to doing work on his skiff the night before, Ace found that he was struggling to stay awake as he made his way on deck. As he walked through the halls he couldn't help but snicker as he recognized a few of the drunk recruits from the night before cleaning the hallways. As far as Ace was concerned, they deserved the punishment. Stepping on deck at 7am, the raven haired male stifled a yawn, slouching as he walked over to where the grey haired marine was standing.

Said marine had been shouting out orders to his crew before turning to Ace, an eyebrow raised as he took in the dark haired man's messy hair, tied up in a rush, and the glasses starting to slip off of his nose. Sighing and shaking his head, Smoker made his way over to Ace, "Right, drop and give me 200 push-ups and then we'll get on with the real training."

Ace looked up at Smoker with a startled expression, but that expression slowly turned to a cheeky grin as he replied, "Ohhh, you want to see me all hot and bothered before the 'real' training? Oh, Smokey, I didn't know you felt that way about me!"

Scowling at the now laughing male, Smoker turned his back, "300 push-ups, and another comment like that and it will be 400." Walking over to Tashigi, Smoker started to discuss some work with her as he waited for Ace to do his push-ups.

Ace had already started on the push up and was doing them quickly and efficiently, not bothered by the high number of them in the least. If anything, he was amused, especially as he wondered what Smoker's reaction would be if he had a narcoleptic attack in the middle of said push-ups. Laughing softly to himself, the dark haired male started to hum, and, once he reached 300, jumped up onto his feet, balancing on the balls of them as he looked over at smoker, a few beads of sweat making their way down his neck to is collarbone. After all, if Ace was going to be stuck in marine clothing, he might as well wear it in a way that he found comfortable , meaning the top few buttons were undone.

Laughing and waving at Smoker, he bounced over, saluting the Commodore playfully, "What next?"

Smoker looked the boy over, he knew 'Spades' had done all 300 as he had been counting, but the boy didn't seem fazed in the slightest. Sighing and shaking his head, Smoker called over one of his strongest men. "You will be spending the next hour training with one of my men and then you will be training with m-"

Smoker couldn't finish his sentence as he suddenly had an armful of brat, a.k.a 'Spade'. Ace had flung himself at Smoker, a cheeky grin on his face, "Awwww, come on Smokey, you know you want to play with me yourself!"

The smoker flowing around Smoker's head was slowly darkening, a vein on the commodore's neck throbbing as he started to get angry. Ace, himself, was babbling away, well aware of how he was making Smoker angry and the surrounding marines weary. Neither Smoker nor the marines could figure out if 'Spade's' was stupid or simply insane. As the raven haired male looked up and smirked, the marines nearby came to the conclusion that he was simply crazy, especially as Smoker started to shout at the boy. All Ace did was laugh and urn off as Smoker tried to catch him.

Ducking into a room, Ace successfully avoided Smoker, and, as he looked around the room, his eyes lit up with unadultered glee.

This room was filled with some rather interesting objects that could make the week he was stuck on board pretending to be a marine a lot more fun.

And he knew exactly where to begin.


End file.
